1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a powder-form, zeolite-containing preparation intended for the dry cleaning of fabrics, particularly carpets.
2. Statement of the Related Art
In addition to shampoos, powder-form cleaning preparations have recently been used to an increasing extent for cleaning carpets and other textile coverings in situ, having the advantage of not leaving any ridges and drying more quickly. Cleaning powders of the type in question contain as their principal constituents surfactants and adsorbents and also relatively large quantities of water in loosely bound form. It is assumed that the surfactants, together with the water present, are responsible for detaching the dirt particles from the fibers and transporting them to the adsorbent which, after evaporation of the water, is removed together with the soil by brushing or vacuum cleaning. Various materials have been proposed as adsorbents, including for example powdered synthetic resin foam (AT No. 296 477), fuller's earth, talcum, sawdust (U.S. Pat. No. 3,418,243) and bleached wood powder (CH-PS No. 461 685).
In spite of the much smaller quantities of liquid which are applied with these powder-form preparations compared with shampoos, drying times of up to several hours are still necessary because otherwise the residues cannot be completely removed. This is a disadvantage, above all in the case of industrial cleaning.
An adsorbent which has proved to be particularly effective both in shampoos and also in cleaning powders is a sodium aluminosilicate known as zeolite. Zeolite-based preparations, of the type described for example in DE-OS No. 25 44 605, are distinguished by their high cleaning power. However, they also involve problems arising out of the emission of dust and the unusually strong adhesion of the finely divided zeolite powder to the textile fibers, as a result of which the cleaning preparation cannot be completely removed, leaving the treated fabrics, particularly dark-colored carpets, discolored in appearance. These undesirable side effects have not really been eliminated by the proposal in U.S. Pat. No. 4,493,781 to add zeolite powder onto an equally insoluble carrier, particularly cellulose powder. Accordingly, there is still a need to develop dry cleaning preparations for fabrics having better overall properties.